Saga The Original Sequel Trilogy (original story ideas, treatments, interviews, concepts, etc. by Lucas)

Definitely, I don't disagree. But what I'm saying is that the plan was that the Grady Ranch virtual set would allow not only some of the production to start, but also at a reduced cost. That's why he was so adamant to get it done. Maybe just for a couple of episodes, but that would have been enough to sell it to the networks (specially the streaming networks that by the time would eventually surface).

Oh, well. It's a pity that we were so close to get it, along with other things...

 

The image of Leia as the leader of the restored Republic and governing from the same Senate we saw in the prequels would have been a powerful fusion of both trilogies. And it strikes me also as a powerful image of a new and uncorrupted democracy, something we rarely see depicted in fiction but which our modern mythology could certainly benefit from. Of course, the Senate wouldn’t have been perfect even then, per Lucas, but by the end of the trilogy the heroes would’ve secured a stronger democracy.

In many ways, Lucas’s sequel ideas seem to flesh out the victory of Endor, to take it beyond a quick and easy resolution and show us what follows up as a natural consequence of that victory. It sounds much more optimistic and hopeful.

Even the villains, the criminal underworld led by Maul, make perfect sense as a follow-up, as agents of chaos vying for power in the absence of the Empire. And it does justice to the greatly expanded character of Maul from the prequels and also serves as a logical follow-up to Leia’s killing of Jabba. Besides the Hutts, I’m very curious about what other criminal beings would’ve joined with Maul against Leia and the Republic.

On a slightly related note, I know that Colin Trevorrow considered including a council of alien warlords in some of his drafts for Episode IX, and I wonder if that image could’ve been based on this element of Lucas’s treatments?

 

Three years ago, I started cataloging everything I could find that was from or could be from George's ideas for the sequel trilogy and put everything I found in this article. I've tried to keep it up to date ever since with every bit of news I could find, all with proper sourcing.

 

I will loved to see Coruscant the Prequel Jedi temple to be the place of Luke Jedi Order and Luke using Prequel Jedi teachings just like Lucas said Luke never married he is a Jedi i like the idea of Pirates underworld Villains like a Dark Version of The Rebel Alliance but i not like Maul to be the final main Villain

 

i believe the Underworld TV Show could have connected the EU with Lucas movies i remember The Force Unleashed was treated to be Canon back then just like the High Republic is right now also 1313 was going to connect with Underworld and TCW i am sure Lucas plan was to create a Star Wars MCU with EU elements, Movies Shows and Videogames all in one everything to build The Sequel Trilogy i dont know but for me i always saw The Force Unleashed Shadows of the Empire and Plagueis novel to be canon to the movies

 

Yeah, those video games were big multimedia projects, closest thing to actual movies.

 

I think Galen Marek and Kota could have appeared in Underworld same with Dash Rendar in the Solo movie

 

Whats also interesting was that originally Rahm Kota was to appear in Rogue One but they discarded that version of the story for whatever reasoning.

Sam Witwer said he was about to audition for Episode VI but the parameters of the role changed, so he never went in. So that could've meant back when Maul was still part of the story, or it could've been Marek or an original character- but I think more likely either of the first two. That role appeared to have discarded or changed entirely when the Lucas, or Lucas/Arndt or Arndt draft(s) were discarded when Lawrence Kasdan and J.J. Abrams took over the scripting and direction of the movie.

It was was also confirmed that originally Galen "Starkiller" Marek was gonna appear as an Inquisitor on Rebels but they couldnt find the room in the story as far as fitting.

 

I hope we get a comic someday exploring George's ideas.

Or heck, animate them as an elseworlds venture like DC comics does. Unlike the Diseny trilogy, I'd actually watch it.

 

One thing to keep in mind that I think people often overlook or forget is that stories and art change and evolve over time throughout any creative process. Such is the nature of creativity and imagination, loose and flexible. We can never say definitively, for sure, what Lucas' sequel trilogy would look like, nor can Lucas himself really until he actually finished it. Even George himself went back and forth on many ideas, some less significant than others, such as (for example, a minor one) the placement of Luke's death in Episode 8 or 9. This is something I feel like people often don't consider, but it's important to keep in mind, especially when considering hypotheticals like this, even if they are somewhat more grounded through public interviews and documentation per Lucas' words.

 

Lucas ST Maul reminds me a lot to Darth Krayt i believe ST Maul was supposed to be the movie version of Krayt

 

Mark Hamill confirmed Luke was supposed to die in IX. Reminiscent of Yoda’s IMO

 

I would love for there to be some kind of concept art book featuring the work and concepts that were considered while Lucas was developing his sequels. We have a few of those in the existing art books, but short of anything more finalized, it would be great to get something that is solely focused on what Lucas's vision would have been. I doubt that will happen anytime soon, though, since much of the material is likely to be kept on hand in case they want to recycle it for other content.

 

Kinda related to this, but did George Lucas himself ever confirm that the main character would've been a girl? I know that Pablo Hidalgo and other Disney execs have claimed as much, but how do we know they aren't just trying to cover their asses or something like that? I mean, Kira Solo SOUNDS like a George Lucas idea, but do we know for a fact that it was?

 

Also, I think Maul wouldn't have been in the first movie. Pablo Hidalgo talked about Maul in the treatment and said the following. "Until after the sale. Throughout 2012. Maul wasn’t a VII character, though. More like someplace to go. His apprentice, Darth Talon, would have been the villain." Though how valid IS Hidalgo's comments on the treatments, exactly?

 

All indications point to that being the case, yes. If not the protagonist, she would at least be one of them, along with her brother. Lucas himself always referred to the grandchildren (plural) of Anakin.

 

But it seems like they wouldn't necessarily be the main characters, according to what I read about the 2010s' origin of the ST. That there would have been an orphan girl like Rey who's the main protagonist, plus Han and Leia's kids (boy and girl). I don't think Lucas ever planned on Luke having a kid in his 2010s brainstorming of the ST, and the idea of a self-imposed exile seems to have always been there with the orphan girl re-inspiring him again. But that there were still Jedi in the galaxy, he wasn't the last.

 

The protagonist(s) would have been Han and Leia's kid(s), Thea and Skyler, not an orphan. And you're correct in that Luke (being a Jedi) didn't have an offspring.

 

Precisely this. It's improper to speak of George Lucas having one single "Sequel Trilogy" idea when his thoughts in that direction clearly evolved and mutated drastically over the years.

To give just one example from either end of that evolution, Lucas' "Sequel Trilogy" as conceived around 1979 or so during the making of ESB - with Luke as the protagonist meeting his lost sister (who isn't Leia) after Han and Leia both die in the third film of the OT - is clearly a very different beast than Lucas' "Sequel Trilogy" ideas of the early 2010s, with crimelord Darth Maul as the overarching villain and Darth Talon thrown in somehow.

And who knows how many ideas for other iterations of a "Sequel Trilogy" got thrown around in the meantime?

 

Lucas never developed a sequel trilogy story up until the early 2010s. What's improper is to compare ideas that were simply considered in early development that were eventually dropped or changed by a variety of reasons and that are at the end of the day irrelevant in light of the finished works and respective story he settled on.

Nobody said that stories and ideas don't develop or change during production. That's a strawman that nobody is arguing and is completely irrelevant. The fact remains that there is a sequel trilogy story conceived by Lucas. And for those of us that care, it's one worth investigating and learning about since in the absence of them being developed by Lucas himself (something that unfortunately is never going to happen), it's the closest thing we get from how he envisioned his universe and characters after the events of his established stories.

 

I would dispute the definite article in the singular: "a sequel trilogy story conceived by Lucas". It seems likely that he had multiple shifting ideas for such a trilogy over the years, and it's probably worthwhile to try to untangle them and keep them straight.

Since the idea of Luke's lost sister Nellith Skywalker made its way into Leigh Brackett's rough draft script for ESB, and Lucas said in a 1980 interview in the Bantha Tracks newsletter that the Sequel Trilogy would be "about the character who survives Star Wars III and his adventures" (i.e., presumably Luke Skywalker, suggesting that he would survive ROTJ while Han and Leia would die), it's evident that Lucas' ideas for a "Sequel Trilogy" evolved greatly over time. And I do think those changes are worth exploring, since the earlier ideas do seem to have had a more substantial plot outline than has been fully let on in public, even by Gary Kurtz (RIP).

 

There were multiple ideas developed and considered as all six movies were being made. But there is only one story that he actually developed for a sequel trilogy, just like there was only one story that developed for the sequel to Star Wars (Episode IV), just like there was only one story that he developed for the prequel trilogy. Whatever ideas that he considered back in the day are irrelevant for the story he wanted to tell as the sequel for his finished six movies (and other projects). That story was developed only in the last couple of years before he sold the company. A story that incorporated the mythology he had developed back in the day and stayed consistent throughout the years. A story that might have (or not) incorporated ideas that he had early on. A story that took into account his most recent works. And that's the story, the true sequel story (in the absence of Lucas materializing it into movies), that some of us would like to know.

 

I'd like to know more about it also! But I do think there were also probably some more concrete aspects than have been publicized to whatever Lucas' ideas for a Sequel Trilogy were well before then. And since "the Sequel Trilogy" has been a concept floating around in SW fandom since the 1980s, I don't think it's entirely helpful to apply the term "original" only to the ideas Lucas was developing after he finished the PT. If the discussion here is focused specifically on that, it might be more useful to call it something like "the TCW-era Sequel Trilogy" by way of distinction. But it's still a good topic and worthy of exploration (though I find the earlier concepts equally fascinating).

 

Nobody is stopping anyone from posting those "concrete aspects". And what's being called "original" is in contrast to the existing sequel trilogy from Disney. A trilogy that was done once the original story was discarded. That original story is not TCW-era or pre-TCW era. It's the only post-ROTJ story Lucas took the time to sit down and develop. There's no other.

 

Kinda related to the fact that this was George Lucas's story, should we consider what people like Pablo Hidalgo say to be the truth of what happened in it as well? Or should we just listen to George's words and no one else's?